Beasts of Burden
by Mauodd
Summary: Lee is the most embarrassing person Sakura has ever met. The terrible thing is that her parents won't let her disown him - no matter how much she claims it will save them in future therapy bills. Now edited - with expanded thoughts on what could have been.


_Look left, look right. Look up, look down._ The Academy lesson ran through her mind. _Look behind, just in case. It looks__ clear._

Sakura softly slid her bedroom door to the side, prying open a gap just large enough that she could squeeze through. She had purposefully worn stockings today, to muffle her steps as she made the short trip from her bedroom to the top of the stairs. From her vantage point she could make out the bottom half of the front door. To be safe, Sakura did another check of the immediate area. _Leftrightupdownbehind. Still safe._ Down the hall behind her was the closed door to her parent's bedroom. Beyond that was an open bedroom, bright green walls and crisply pinned posters of basic kata forms. Thankfully the room seemed void of its owner.

Which meant there was a chance he was still downstairs. There was a thirty percent change her target was downstairs, more likely he had already left the property. Probably for an early team meeting - his team leader had an unusual inclination to utilize dramatic sunrises.

_Better safe then dead. _Exactly as her teachers had told her.

Sakura decided to take extra precautions. She calmed herself, each breath become slow and deep and as silent as she could make them. She could feel her heart follow suit, the rapid fire beat of paranoia fading into a carefully controlled pulse. Then gently, Sakura willed the energy that coiled behind her navel to rise, directing a small stream through the labyrinth of her chakra network. Her skin prickled at certain points where the power passed. Finally she concentrated on the spots behind each of her ear drum.

The house around her became a different world, as if a waterfall had come into existence. Sakura resisted the urge to withdraw her chakra, and focused on shutting everything out. There was a trick to it, you used your already controlled breathing to sort things away, so you focused on one thing at a time. She struggled, but then the cacophony dulled to a faint roar. She set her intention on the floor below and the sound of her father chewing filled her ears, as if he was sitting just beside her. _Sounds like Mom under-cooked the rice again. _Sakura heard her mother's footsteps and the the sound of a tea being poured. Her father slurped at the drink and tried to discreetly wheeze.

Deciding breakfast probably wasn't worth eating, Sakura decided to skip the awkward conversation that would go along with it as well. She had already gotten an earful the past week about what she should watch out for as her and her new team went on missions. There had been a parade of Do's and Don'ts. How to make friends with her teammate but still be better then them. How to wisely save any money she earned from her upcoming missions but also have some fun. How to unquestioningly show respect to whatever vetted Jounin had been assigned to be her new Sensei - unless they were weird or creepy, then she was supposed to tell her Mom.

_So not worth it._

Sakura drew more chakra to her ears, feeling the warm as she let more sounds in, sorting through them haphazardly like shifting through radio stations. She cringed as she picked up the shouting of a couple from the apartment complex next door - the high note of a wailing baby - several people snoring - someone dropping a dish - Sakura withdrew her chakra before she could suffer the sound of the crash.

She hadn't heard the distinct sound of her target lurking about. Which meant it was safe, probably. It wasn't as if he was known for his stealth after all.

Still, she eyed the stairs, each with its own creak or squeal. _A good ninja can never be too careful_. Hoisting herself up onto the banister, Sakura applied chakra to the soles of her feet and gently slid downwards. At the bottom she leaned forward, dismounted silently onto her hands, rolling into a muted somersault. Her boots sat at the door, the high sides flopped over, beside them the bag she had packed the previous night and left at the door in anticipation of her quick getaway.

_Looks innocent enough. Maybe too innocent..._

Deciding to change it, Sakura sat down - _leftrightupdownbehind -_ and quickly shoved her feet into her footwear and threaded each buckle into place rapidly. A new record, at twenty four seconds. Victoriously, she grabbed up her bag, winding the strap over her shoulder and quick as she could she opened the front door - _home free!_

**\- a hideous combination of green and orange grew instantaneously from a horrifying smudge in the distance to the point of swallowing her immediate vision like a monster from her worst nightmares -**

Sakura shrieked as a body wrapped around her. She could barely catalog all of the varied sensations as the moment passed - the unpleasant slide of spandex against her cheek, the smell of fresh sweat filling her nostrils, the arms crushing her ribs - Sakura screamed again.

Her parents were instantly in the room. Her mother with a kitchen knife in hand, glowing faintly with chakra, her red hair bound in a messy bun. Her father's beard speckled with grains of rice, his taciturn face as battle-ready as his clenched, burning fists.

They lowered their hackles as they took in the peculiar yet unfortunately mundane scene of their son crushing their daughter into a brutal hug while he pirouetted her around the front entrance in a whirlwind of mad delight.

"_You idiot!_ Let me go! Seriously, stop it!" she made a sound like a dying cat and then snarled another, "Let me go!" while pushing at Lee's shoulders fruitlessly.

Sakura could outdo her brother in every academic arena there was and she liked to let him know how much better she was. Unfortunately he tromped her when it came to anything physical. Equally unfortunate, he also like to remind her of this fact.

"Never!" he laughed maniacally, "I must congratulate you! Aren't you excited? You're finally a ninja, Sakura! Now we can go on missions together! We'll camp out and beat up the bad guys and become heroes!"

"You're making me sick, I'm seriously going to throw up on you." She threatened.

She gathered enough chakra into the tips of her toes and exhaled all the air from her body, trying to collapse her ribs inward. She became just small enough to slide down. Chakra fastened to the floor, Sakura tightened her fingers around her brother's shoulders and used the momentum of his revolution to throw the older boy bodily through the front door.

Sakura scowled as Lee tumbled into a group of garbage bins and immediately bounced free from the trash.

"Nice job on that throw!" Lee bellowed, his smile blinding, both thumbs thrust up.

_Damn it! He's not even phased! It's not fair!_

"Are you mentally damaged?!" Sakura hissed, she turned to her parents, regarding them sourly as she straightened her twisted shirt and reset the strap of her bag. "Please tell me he's adopted?"

"Sakura," her mother warned in a long worn tone.

Sakura grimaced at her, "Whatever. I'm going. I can't be late."

"I'll come with - !"

"Leave me alone! God, don't you have your own team you can go bother?!" Sakura stomped out of the door, Lee trailing after her, oblivious to her derision as he jogged nonchalantly along to her rapidly increasing pace.

"Good luck, sweetheart!" her mother shouted, waving at their backs. Lee turned to jog backwards so he could smile and wave back - Sakura took the opportunity to try and dodge away from him, but he was quick to find her in the crowd and continue his goodhearted pestering.

Without turning her head away from her children's shrinking forms the matriarch of the Rock-Haruno household spoke to her husband in a chilling tone, "This is all your fault you know."

"What?"

"I told you Maito Gai was the wrong teacher for Lee - he's practically a clone of the man now."

"He's the only one who would take Lee under his wing with his - his disability. We've had this discussion before, darling. This is just a phase, kids go through them as they figure out who they want to be. Remember Sakura? First she wanted to be a dancer, and then a scholar, now she's becoming a kunoichi."

"That's different... and you still bought Lee that ridiculous suit without asking me first_._"

"Are you every going to let me live that down?"

"I really don't know, _sweetheart,_I may if by some divine intervention from God we manage to have grandchildren." Her expression void of humor she returned to the kitchen.

Rubbing rice from his face, her husband called after her, "There's still always Sakura."

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I don't think there has ever been mention of Lee's parents - not that I can recall at least. I thought his character would be more interesting if he came from a family of chakra prodigies. Then I thought, it would be funny if Sakura was his sister - whose got crazy good control. So she's all 'power of heaven' and he's all 'power of earth' complimenting and warring and the things that help create chakra. A sibling rivalry to - uh - _rival_ all others!

Oh the angst I could put them through. However, I never fully developed the story. This came out of revisiting the concept. My thoughts were:

Lee would be a ridiculous and embarrassing brother to have and I like to think he'd bring out the brat in Sakura. She's already kind of bratty in canon, but with that 'only child' vibe that has no good foil. I'm not sure where the story would go plot wise - but I had wanted to explore these two altered characters. Lee who should be the heir to a family of chakra prodigies, his little sister whom he loves but who is informally expected to take his place as the heir - Sakura's complicated feelings about taking her - though she'll never admit it - beloved brother's position - _all the feelings!_

I liked the image of their parents too, in my mind they gave off the same vibe as the elder Ino-Shika-Cho combo, all heads of their clans but kind of mundane, not flashy like Uchiha or Hyuga with the fancy traditions and the compounds they must be using to compensate for something.

But a lot of things never got pinned down. Like who Sakura would have on her team. Having her with the slightly changed personality of an expected clan heir, cossetted by an elder brother, with the desire to overcome his shadow of sheer determination through academics - well, it changes everything. She would have higher scores, more drive, she may or may not be friends with certain people, that would change how the teams might be set up.

Not to mention Lee, who has a little sister he wants to protect but not harm through his actions, he'd have a greater desire to become strong - if that's even possible - and to become such a great ninja through Taijutsu that maybe he could reclaim his position as heir, but at the expense his relationship with his sister who also desperately desires to lead her family and learn the deeper secrets of chakra, etc.

I don't know - maybe that is considered somewhat a plot, but it never felt fleshed out enough to be worth digging any deeper.

I guess some things just end up this way...


End file.
